Backroad Lessons for Executives, Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

The Roadside MBA Team

Mike Mazzeo, Paul Oyer, and Scott Schaefer (l to r) in Tulare, CA

Mike Mazzeo is an Associate Professor of Management and Strategy at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Mike’s research focuses on empirical industrial organization, in particular the role of differentiation and endogenous product choice in firm strategy and market competition. He teaches business analytics and business strategy in Kellogg’s MBA program, and is also a regular instructor in Kellogg’s Executive MBA and open enrollment programs. He joined the Kellogg faculty in 1998 after completing his PhD in economics at Stanford University.

Mike is the Roadside MBA audio technician and frequently books our lodging. He usually sits in the back seat and offers amusing quips to defuse travel-related tension. A lifelong New York Yankees fan, Mike is currently suffering from post-Jeter anxiety and depression.

Paul Oyer is the Fred H. Merrill Professor of Economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Labor Economics.

Paul’s research focuses on personnel economics, with emphasis on how firms’ HR practices — including hiring, firing, and providing incentives — influence strategy. He teaches various topics in economics, human resource management, and strategy in Stanford’s MBA and Executive MBA programs. Before moving to Stanford in 2000, Paul taught at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He has a PhD in economics from Princeton University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Paul rides shotgun and serves as the official photographer of Roadside MBA. He also navigates, and maintains that we wouldn’t get lost if only Scott would follow his directions more closely. A Mets fan since his youth, he occasionally cheats on the Mets by rooting for the Oakland A’s.

Scott Schaefer is the Kendall D. Garff Chair in Business Administration and Professor of Finance at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business.

Scott’s research focuses on the economics of organization, with an emphasis on understanding employment relationships and decision-making inside firms. He teaches economics-based MBA courses at the University of Utah, and makes regular guest-teaching appearances at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He is co-author of the leading textbook Economics of Strategy and served as Associate Dean at the University of Utah’s business school from 2009 to 2012. Scott moved to Utah in 2005, and previously held the Richard M. Paget Chair in Management Policy at Kellogg. He has a PhD in economics from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Scott is the Roadside MBA driver, and insists that he follows Paul’s directions to the letter. He is also a lifelong Chicago White Sox fan, which is great because he frequently has a bit of spare time in October for extra blogging.